Disclaimer: L.J. Smith created these characters and the CW created this universe. I just play in it.

Author's note: There are no words to describe the awesomeness of your reviews! You guys totally make my day. I'm beginning to worry if I can live up to your expectations! I'll just let you decide for yourselves. Now we continue right where we left off, the boys looking for Elena, who mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the school dance...

Chapter 10

Damon and Stefan moved through the halls with stealth and speed. To the human eye, doors appeared to fly open of their own accord. They checked each hall and each classroom, fear gnawing at the pit of each brother's stomach, though neither would admit it out loud. Their ears pricked and they exchanged a look when they heard a grunt come from a classroom at the end of the hall.

They busted open the door to find Elena crouching across from the vampire. They registered with mild surprise that several pencils were sticking out of him. He lunged for Elena, and both brothers jumped for him, tackling him to the ground. Damon looked up and saw a broom. He grabbed it, snapping it in half, and stabbed the vampire in the stomach, noting with satisfaction that he doubled over in pain.

"So," Stefan said, crossing his arms and stepping in front of the vampire, now on his knees. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," he replied.

"Wrong answer," Stefan said, twisting the homemade stake. He howled in pain. "What do you want with Elena? Why did you attack her?"

"I was just playing with her. She looks like Katherine." He shot them a significant look. "I'm sure you can understand that."

Stefan narrowed his eyes. "You don't know anything about it."

"Oh, don't I? Come on, you guys don't think you were the only ones, do you? She turned a lot of us. Besides, look at her," he said, turning to Elena. "So like her, yet tasty and human. And I noticed they share some of the same characteristics. For instance… she arches her back the same way, doesn't she, Damon?" he goaded.

Stefan glanced at Damon, noting that his eyes momentarily widened in surprise before returning to a shroud of nonchalance.

"I wouldn't know," Damon lied smoothly.

The vampire grinned, baring his teeth. "Ah, history repeats itself. Each brother in love, each hiding it from the other. You gotta love the love triangles."

Damon scoffed. "Please. This schmuck over here fancies himself in love. But I think you know what I want. So where is it?"

"The grimoire? No idea."

Damon growled in rage, grabbing the stake and twisting it deeper. "As you see, I'm not a patient man, so I am only going to ask this once more. Where. Is. It?"

"I don't know, I don't know! But I know that Jonathan Gilbert wrote about it in his journal."

"What's he talking about?" Elena asked, her eyes darting to each vampire in the room.

"Emily's grimoire," Stefan said, all the pieces finally fitting together. "So he can release Katherine from the tomb. He finds the journal, he gets the grimoire, reverses the spell, releases Katherine and lives his happily ever after."

Elena gasped, a sharp pang appearing in her side. All this time she thought that Damon really wanted her, but was too stubborn or too scared to admit it. But this whole time, the diabolical plan he teased about was really a ploy to get Katherine back. She started to feel sick, realizing she put her trust in the wrong brother.

"Nicely done, Sherlock. Only took you a hundred years to work it out," Damon said. He returned to his line of questioning. "Do you know where the journal is?"

"No," the vampire answered.

"And are you working alone?" he added.

"Yes."

"Alright then," Damon said, pulling out the stake and tossing it to Stefan with an imperceptible nod. Stefan plunged the stake into his heart.

Elena cried out. "But… do you really think he was working alone? Don't you need to find out more information?"

"We found out all we were going to find out," Damon said.

Stefan agreed. "He had to die, Elena. He was invited in," he reminded her.

"Right…" she said, suddenly feeling light-headed. She didn't realize she was quite so wobbly until Stefan put his arm around her in a comforting gesture. She made eye contact with Damon, but his face was unreadable. She squeezed her eyes shut and clung to Stefan, tears leaking unbidden from her eyes.

Stefan didn't know what to think; it's not like she had never seen a corpse before, or someone killed, for that matter. He then glanced at Damon who averted his eyes and began to clean up. Did he miss something? Was more going on than he realized? He thought back to what the vampire said. Elena arching her back. How would he know something like that?

Elena took comfort in Stefan's arms. She didn't know why she had ignored Stefan for so long. He was always there, just waiting for her to accept his love. She needed to stop letting herself get wrapped up in whatever this was with Damon, especially if these little interludes they kept having weren't ultimately going anywhere.

"You take her back, I got this," Damon said, still avoiding looking at either of them.

Stefan started to ask him if he was sure, but thought better of it. "Ok. Come on, Elena." He released her and she quickly wiped her eyes.

"Thanks… I'm glad it's over," she said, trying to infuse her words with other meanings. She ignored the look of shock on Stefan's face when she slipped her hand in his as they walked out of the room. She didn't see Damon gritting his teeth as he cleaned up. She looked up at Stefan when he squeezed her hand, sharing a smile with him.

Stefan paced the living room. After they left the classroom, Elena wanted to go on home. She made her excuses to Bonnie and Caroline, who only raised their eyebrows at her and Stefan looking to all the world as if they were back together. He dropped her off at her house, unsure of what was going on in her head. He didn't want to ask, to pressure her, so he settled for walking her to her door and pressing a chaste kiss to her forehead before letting her go inside. But now that he was back home, he couldn't get that one little comment out of his mind. He noticed Damon's car wasn't back yet, and without thinking, found himself standing in the doorway of Damon's room. He stepped in and scanned the room. He didn't know what he was looking for. Something, anything to disprove his irrational fear.

He searched the room, only looking with his eyes, knowing that Damon would know instantly if he touched or moved anything. He sighed. He was just being ridiculous. He turned to leave, glancing in disgust at the pile of laundry tossed haphazardly by the door. His heart stopped when he saw something peeking out of the pocket of one of Damon's jackets. He crouched down to get a closer look and his jaw tightened. It was a lacy pair of underwear with Elena's scent all over them. He stormed out of the room, not sure where he was going, only knowing that he had to get out of there, and fast.

Elena brushed her hair for the thousandth time and finally crawled between the sheets, turning off the light and staring at the ceiling in the dark. It was all so much to take in, and her brain didn't know where to start. She got goosebumps and realized that a fairly strong breeze was blowing through her window. She sighed and got up to close it. When she turned around, she decided she wasn't terribly surprised to find Damon sitting on the foot of her bed.

"Hey," he said simply.

"Damon, I'm tired, can we just… do this some other time? I need to go to sleep." She walked right past him, getting back into bed.

"Wow, so this is what it would be like to be married to you," he joked. He noted that Elena did not seem amused. In fact, she turned away from him and closed her eyes. He looked off in the distance, not sure what he wanted to say. To be honest, he wasn't really sure why he was here, only that he had originally planned on coming back here before they went to the dance. He watched her, slightly amused that she was trying so hard to have long, even breaths, despite the fact that he could hear her heart pounding.

"So here's the thing," he started. He figured he would tell her that he was just trying to get information out of that vampire, explaining away her interpretation of just how badly he wanted Katherine to come back. The plans that he'd been spending 145 years on seemed like they could wait awhile until he was done with Elena.

"I'm with Stefan," she said suddenly. That stopped him in his tracks.

"What?"

"I'm with Stefan," she repeated. "At least… I'm going to be. He loves me, and I - I think it's time I stop keeping him at arms length as my friend. If someone loves you, you shouldn't push them away… right?" She waited for what seemed like eternity, but he didn't answer. She opened one eye to make sure he was still there, that the weight she felt at the end of the bed was real. He was, sitting there, still as a statue. "Like the way you love Katherine," she said. He turned to look at her - finally, a reaction!

"Yeah," he said. "Like the way I love Katherine."

It was funny; the words that came out of his mouth didn't match the intense look he was giving her. She swallowed thickly and looked out the window. "Do you really think that vampire was working alone?"

Damon didn't follow her gaze, keeping his eyes fixed on her face. "Not one bit."

"Me either," she said, frowning at the moon.

"I'll stay," Damon said, abruptly getting up and moving to a chair.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"You're freaking out because you're worried that whoever he's working with can get into your house. It could be anyone. So I'll stay. You sleep."

"I'm not freaking out," she said grumpily. But inside, she was totally worried, and a little freaked out that he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Go to sleep," Damon said.

"But… don't be ridiculous, you need to sleep too," she protested.

"Yeah, about that… I'm kind of nocturnal by nature. I'll be fine," he said with a wink.

"Well… it's your decision, not mine, just remember that," she said before settling in to sleep.

Damon chuckled softly. "As if you'd let me forget."

Elena was dreaming, but it seemed very real to her. In her dream, Damon was running. She was running too, but he was always three yards ahead of her. All of a sudden, he stopped running, and Elena saw him embrace a version of herself, except she had flowing brown curls and was wearing a dress that looked like it was from the Founder's Day Celebration. The curly-her kissed Damon, and then broke away to look directly at her. She saw her face change and her teeth flash as she charged at dream-Elena, and in that moment she knew it was Katherine. She screamed and managed to wake herself up just as the dream-Katherine was about to reach her.

Her scream woke a lightly dozing Damon who had kicked off his shoes and propped his feet up at the foot of her bed. He tossed aside the jacket in his lap and moved to sit on the bed beside her. "Nightmare?" he asked rhetorically.

"Yeah," she said, still getting used to the waking world.

"The vamp in the hoodie again?" he presumed.

Elena looked at him and was too embarrassed to tell the truth. "Yeah, and he had a mystery partner with him. They were… about to get me, in my room," she lied.

"Hm," Damon said. "Well, lie back down."

Elena looked at him quizzically, but complied. She watched with narrowed eyes as he slid into her bed, fully clothed. "What are you doing?"

"Keeping the nightmares away… and the reality. No one's going to attack you if you're asleep in my arms. Even the bravest of vampires wouldn't have the balls. Or be so stupid." He lay on his side behind her and pulled her up to his chest, sliding an arm around her front and holding her tight. "Relax, I got your back," he quipped. Elena rolled her eyes. As cocky and enigmatic as he was, she couldn't argue with his logic. Though she couldn't figure him out no matter how much energy her brain wasted on him, she couldn't deny that she felt much safer now. She still didn't know what he was doing here, protecting her, when he was that much closer to his goal. She figured by now he would be out there, looking for her ancestor's journal. Still, she wasn't going to argue. And she wasn't going to dwell on how nice it felt to lay here with him, feeling his breath on her neck and his arm possessively holding her close. She didn't know what the morning would bring, but she was determined to make a decision one way or another before the day was out. But for now, she found herself drifting back to sleep, one hand subconsciously sliding down to meet the hand that was holding her...

Author's note: So much turmoil, and so many lies! What do you think the morning will hold for Elena... and Damon... and Stefan? Will Elena really put an end to the "benefits" Damon's been enjoying? Will she run back to Stefan? And would he take her back? What do you think he's going to do about his revelation?

Thanks for reading, and continue to send me your honest reviews. Hope you enjoyed seeing some of your predictions come true. ;)